Niamh Regan has released a brand-new single ‘Madonna’. The Irish singer songwriter from county Galway follows on from the release of her critically acclaimed album ‘Hemet’ in 2020, which was nominated for best album at the RTÉ Choice Music Prize Awards and the RTÉ Folk Awards.
The song features beautiful acoustic guitar coupled together with the intimacy of Niamh Regan’s vocals. The lyrics of the song delves into human emotion, love and relationships. The question “a Madonna whore complex is it a thing?” is the central one that Niamh comes back to throughout the song. “The Madonna whore complex” is a tendency for men to categorise women into the polar extremes of “Madonna”, symbolising purity and innocence or “whore”, promiscuity and sexual desire. By repeating the question, the song questions whether this plays an important part in relationships.
The song explores “found things to talk about” and “found things to think about” and the mundane yet cherished bits of life emphasise the importance of the small moments in life. The repetition of the phrase “You're too pretty for me to say chivalry’s dead” along with the slight melancholic repeating acoustic guitar lick suggests the overall tone is one that is sad in nature. However, the content of the lyrics suggests an internal conflict within the artist herself.
The simplistic yet effective structure of the song perfectly encapsulates the feelings and anguish of societal pressures and the expectations of women. With the song playing out with slow acoustic riff.
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